There is lots of good information on this site from previous conversations. If you haven't looked go ahead and do a search. There are also a bunch of other 265 owners that I'm sure that will chime in too. The 265 is a big beamy 26ft boat, she looks and handles like a larger vessel. The unique fold down transom design gives her more cockpit room then any other boat in its class. It also allows fishing off the transom much easier then most other similar sized boats.
The express design is kind of a take it or leave it type of thing I guess. The express design with the large helm area fits our needs of the boat much better. I can fit 5 people under the hard top and protected if the weather gets nasty, good luck doing this with a traditional walkaround of this size. The helm design on the 265 is far superior in my opinion to any other boat in her size class. As far as going up to the bow, it is really not that bad. Most of the time people are up there is during anchoring, at anchor or at the dock. For our use of the boat, going up front underway at anything above idle speed rarely ever happens.
There has been quite a lot mentioned about the handling of the boat. There is a little bit of a learning curve especially in relation to trim with the hull. That being said once you get used to her, the boat rides like a beast through the normal chop we get here in the northeast. She can go through a lot rougher stuff then I can. With her 250 gallon fuel capacity and four stroke power she has excellent range. A lot of guys up here in the northeast take these boats to the canyons 70+ miles offshore. There is also a massive fish box to hold your catch or ice.
There was a change to the hull design in 2002 coinciding with the release of the Yamaha F225. The deadrise was reduced slightly and the scuppers raised to accommodate the bigger 4 stroke engines. Because of these changes, the ideal hull to repower with 4 strokes would be a 2002-05. Pretty much all of these boats made between 2002-05 were paired with the F225s. The older boats 2000/01 will have mostly have 2 stroke power( a lot had yamaha 200 HPDI), although performance is similar between the 2 engines the 4 stroke boats will usually be found priced higher.
All in all she has been a great boat for us. She is a looker as I will get a lot of questions and comments about her wherever I have gone with her. I have had the 265 for 9 seasons and know the boat well inside and out. If you have any questions please feel free to PM me. If you are interested my boat is listed in the for sale section as we are looking to move to a larger grady express.
Damian
